Liberty Steel suspended operations at its Magona facility in Piombino, Italy, on December 20 in response to a shortage of steel coils which feed its rolling lines to produce galvanized and pre-painted steel products, according local media on Dec 21.
As part of the acquisition of the Italian re-roller from ArcelorMittal, Liberty signed a five-year agreement with previous owner to ensure the continuity of supply for semi-finished steel products (hot rolled coils).
Davis Index understands Liberty plans to fully integrate its upstream and downstream supply chain between the Romania-based Galati steelworks and Italy-based Magona re-rolling facility once Galati has been fully upgraded.
In the meantime, however, Magona has suffered from increased competition for material sourced from ArcelorMittal’s France-based Fos-sur-Mer steelworks given the recent recovery in regional demand for steel products.
Liberty Magona managing director, Giovanni Carpino, said “we await the arrival of two ships in the coming weeks and we have managed to enter into contracts for the supply of coils which give us a guarantee of production continuity until June”
“At the end of the holidays, therefore, the Magona plants should go back to running at full speed and with sufficient continuity of supplies”, said Carpino.
Liberty Magona has an annual capacity to produce 800,000mt per year of galvanized and pre-painted flat steel.